Stocks fell Tuesday, erasing earlier gains in a volatile session, amid worse-than-expected U.S. existing-home sales and the latest on the European debt crisis. A morning advance lost momentum after the U.S. housing-market report and amid the ongoing debt crisis, and stocks plunged in the last hour of trading. U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers are meeting Tuesday and Wednesday with an announcement expected Wednesday on interest rates and the economy. The central-bank officials are widely expected to hold a key rate steady at historic lows near zero percent. Of more interest will be the statement and what the Fed says about the economic outlook. Also in Washington, White House budget director Peter Orszag on Tuesday confirmed reports he plans to resign in July, in what would be the first major Obama administration official to leave. In U.S. economic news, existing-home sales fell 2.2 percent in May. Analysts expected sales to rise 5.5 percent. The U.S. dollar gained 0.3 percent versus the euro and fell 0.5 percent versus the yen. Light sweet crude oil for July delivery fell 61 cents to $77.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold for August delivery rose 10 cents to $1,240.80 an ounce after closing at a record $1,258.30 on Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 148.89, or 1.4 percent, to 10,293.52. Declines were broad based, with 26 of the index's 30 components falling, led by Home Depot, IBM, Hewlett-Packard Chevron, Caterpillar, and Boeing. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 17.89, or 1.6 percent, to 1,095.31. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 27.29, or 1.2 percent, to 2,261.80. Shares of Apple gained after the technology giant confirmed it sold 3 million iPad tablet computers in less than three months. Amazon.com shares also rebounded after falling Monday on news the online retailer was reducing the price of its Kindle electronic reader.
